Dara Dejbakhsh

Dara is the co-founder and CEO of DND Groups, Inc. Dara contributes more than 35 years of experience in retailing, franchising, global operations, manufacturing, financial and general management to DND Groups.

As a young man, Dara began his career with Taco Bell. During his time with the PepsiCo company he was promoted several times from store manager to the corporate level. After 10 years with Taco Bell, Dara became the Regional Vice President for Rally’s Hamburgers. Where he managed the fastest growing and most profitable region in the country.

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Dara later went on to become the Area Vice President (Marketing, Development & Operations), Executive VP, and Board Member for Allied Domecq (Dunkin Donuts, Togos, Baskin Robbins) where he oversaw territories in the Western USA, Asia Pacific, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. His territories were responsible for 1.3 billion dollars in sales and were comprised of over 4,000 stores. During his tenure with Allied Domecq he facilitated the opening of 350 units in a signal fiscal year. He led the creation and execution of a strategy in international markets to accelerate the rate of new unit development in the more profitable countries. Dara negotiated new and aggressive growth targets in Japan and South Korea which resulted in record performing years for both countries. He also headed the turn around of business in Canada and oversaw the completion of over 1,800 unit remodels, which resulted in positive sales growth after 10 years of negative year over year sales.

Prior to founding DND Groups Dara served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer for Mrs. Fields Famous Brands. During his time with Mrs. Fields Famous Brand he lead the effort to turn around several struggling brands by re-concepting, improving profit margins in manufacturing, and as a result he generated double digit year over year sales growth.